What did you do on your layout today?

1. Track set up.

2. Add the chicken wire.

3. Trim Chicken Wire.

4. Set-up water Hydrocal & dish soap.

5. Set up work area.

6. Pour Hydrocal into the molds. Some are custom made molds.

7. Place the rock molds into position.

8. Placing the final molds into position.

I used two HO scale single lane crossing sets to make a walkway from the flagstop at Winner to the passing track as it seemed a real depot would have that.

I'll be weathering here very soon as well among the tracks...

p51 posted:

I used two HO scale single lane crossing sets to make a walkway from the flagstop at Winner to the passing track as it seemed a real depot would have that.

I'll be weathering here very soon as well among the tracks...

Once again looking good Lee. I like all the little ideas you come up with.

Train room Gary,

That's a lot of rock walls there on the layout!  The old tried and true methods still work well.  You can use old methods, new methods, or a mixture on a layout.

Dusted things off last night and ran Ivor a bit, towing a homemade track cleaning car in a bit of a work train. Fixed a sagging airship...

mike g. posted

Once again looking good Lee. I like all the little ideas you come up with.

Thanks a lot, Mike.

Mark Boyce posted:

Train room Gary,

That's a lot of rock walls there on the layout!  The old tried and true methods still work well.  You can use old methods, new methods, or a mixture on a layout.

Thanks Mark for checking out the process. I have added two more photos.

Final inspection.

We use these Terri Cloths, mixed with the Hydrocal  to re-enforce the Hydrocal. Something like re-enforced concrete.

Crazy Week and its only Wednesday. I thought the weekend was hectic.   Spent the day trying to do a brain dump.  Made a video with my one of my latest purchases.  Weaver NP RS 11. Ok it was relaxing for me.

Carey TeaRose posted:

suzukovich posted:

Carey TeaRose posted:

Tom and I got the coat of Minwax Express Color wood stain in Mahogany on all the facing boards of the Art Deco style layout table. It looks great! (sorry for all the train boxes underneath and the Barclay folks laying on paper napkins on the table messiness)

Polyurethane coat 1 of 5 next.

 

Carey, Fist congratulation on the big day..   Your layout has come together rather nicely.  By the way. Any updates on the layout in your classroom?

The classroom layout (as I was talking just today with one of the paraprofessionals I work with) is most likely going to have to leave the classroom- for good. That means sawing the two adjoining layout tables into pieces to get them out the door. All the houses of mine and the figures will have to be boxed up and carried out and stored. I may have some of the houses go on a high display shelf in my sewing/ladies parlor room. No point with less than three weeks left of school putting legs on it or working more with the wiring.

To bad you have to take it down.. I am sure the kids will miss it and but they also learned from helping you. That's a good thing. One more pic before it is gone. 

suzukovich posted:

Crazy Week and its only Wednesday. I thought the weekend was hectic.   Spent the day trying to do a brain dump.  Made a video with my one of my latest purchases.  Weaver NP RS 11. Ok it was relaxing for me. 

Great video, I love the NP and RS-11s were always a great looking locomotive, to me.

I installed a Lionel SC-2 TMCC switch & accessory controller. I won it on Ebay and it got here Monday. I removed the remote switches and I had to rewire the all the switches (4) for the SC-2. Once I got it all wired, then I had to program ID numbers for the switches. After dealing with some slight difficulties, I got it working. Now I can add the 4x6 extension and activate the switches without having to walk  around the layout to get to the remote switches. Plus it's cheaper than buying command switch tracks.

Got the passenger crossing looking much better and the power pole finished with transformer to run a power line to the country store.
Bought some bead pins at a local syore that sells beads that each have a loop at the end, will anchor the power lines that way to the pole and structure.

I painted my latest crane. Roo. 

Was taking care of some of the repairs from Saturday's Train Day when I noticed Norma Bates Kitteh on the layout, waiting for some trains to watch.  Far be it for me to disappoint her!

Mitch

Lee, being a fan of high detail, I might be jumping the gun, but beats hindsight, here's a couple "lesser used" ideas you just might like.

"Step it up?"  .....don't "lag" behind ...

Pappa ooomaa mow mow?

Too much?

This might ensure there's no need for a bunch of white and green paint spatter

Here's two red winged "birds" I could watch all day ...and I better stop right there before the post ends up with ..The Trashmen

Lookin' great Lee

  My own layout? Last week I attempted to mow the lawn. Self propelled and started up by a pal, I still ended up "laid-out" on the green in pain, the Oxy remains in it's dark brown bottle, as I don't enjoy "melting" either .

Never thought I'd miss mowing it.

   Almost needless to say, I've missed working on the layouts too, so thanks to all for a week of vicarious living. Great timing after a short lull here

Rather than waste time waiting for overdue components ordered off the bay and from suppliers to float in, so I can finish this mine shafthouse complex, I have started building an old Wabash Valley Markle Mill (Simpson Grain Co.) elevator kit.  This is a stick-built model; using waxpaper like an old model airplane kit.

Adriatic posted:

Lee, being a fan of high detail, I might be jumping the gun, but beats hindsight, here's a couple "lesser used" ideas you just might like.

 

Lookin' great Lee

Thanks!

Birds on the wire won't work as they'd just flip over from being so top-heavy on the line. Berkshire's "EZ Line" is really just elastic string in the common colors you'd need for a layout, no way it'd support even a light plastic casting of a bird. But the grips on the sides of the pole are a good idea that I'd never thought of. I have small spikes that could work for that, so tonight I'll try to mount some to the third pole I made, so see how that'd work.

I do have some Wiseman bird castings, so maybe I'll try to put one on top of the transformer on the one pole that has one.

Back in the 30s and 40s, it was common to cut the tops of power poles at an angle to prevent nests like that, though. Beats me when they stopped doing that.

I fully intend on putting (painted) bird poop on roofs and high places on the layout when I'm further along with my campaign to flood the layout with small details.

But the grips on the sides of the pole are a good idea that I'd never thought of. I have small spikes that could work for that, 

I used HO track spikes. Someone commented on the spacing. They're just eyeballed but pretty close to a scale 18" These are Balsa poles. Easy to stick spikes in

Yep, that's exactly what I have and I can't wait to put these on the poles tonight. I'll be using fewer than the previous photo, as I don't think in the 30s or 40s, they'd have used that many.

My Dad bought a used power pole for our TV antenna about the time I was a toddler, and I remember wanting to climb it as he'd added those metal 'rungs' but being the smart man he is, he knew better than to place them at kid level. At 6' 7", Dad could start them around 5 feet or so if he ever needed to climb the thing. By the time I was tall enough to even try it without a ladder, my interest in climbing stuff was mostly behind me.

Thanks for the ideas, guys!

4th and last coat of polyurethane put on the facing boards of the Art Deco layout table yesterday. Aside from a bit of touch up to the black gloss painted legs- the construction and finish of this table is DONE!!

WOOHOO, wiring and playtime with all the Std. Gauge goodies on this is next!